Sifting Poles from Germans? Ethnic Cleansing and Ethnic Screening In

Home , District (Poland), Silesian Uprisings

Sifting Poles from Germans? Ethnic Cleansing and Ethnic Screening in Upper Silesia, 1945–1949 Author(s): HUGO SERVICE Reviewed work(s): Source: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 88, No. 4 (October 2010), pp. 652-680 Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41061897 . Accessed: 25/08/2012 13:48

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http://www.jstor.org SEER, Vol. 88, No. 4, October2010 SiftingPoles fromGermans? Ethnic Cleansingand EthnicScreening in Upper Silesia,1 945-1 949 HUGO SERVICE

I The ethniccleansing which engulfedCentral and EasternEurope in the firsthalf of the twentiethcentury was oftena matterof indiscrimi- nate expulsionin whichlittle or no timewas takento reflecton the culturalidentity of the victims.Yet not all of it was carriedout in this manner.The occupiersand governmentswhich implementedethnic cleansingpolicies in Poland and Czechoslovakiaduring and afterthe Second World War came to the conclusionthat there were many inhabitantsof the territoriesthey wished to 'cleanse' who could not be instantlyrecognized as belongingto one nationalgroup or another. They decided to subjectthese people to rigorousethnic screening to ensurethat only genuine members of unwantednational groups were uprooted. Ethniccleansing was combinedwith ethnic screening, for example, in the territorieswhich Germanyannexed fromPoland in autumn 1939,where it tookthe formof theDeutsche Volksliste (DVL). The DVL requiredpeople livingin these territoriesto fillout special question- naireswhich the Nazi German authoritiesattempted to use to deter- minewhether they were Germans, cof German descent' or Poles. It was targetedparticularly at the linguisticallymixed areas of the annexed - territories easternUpper Silesia,part of theDanzig regionand part of southernEast Prussia- where the Nazi leadershipassumed that a large proportionof local inhabitantswere ethno-raciallyGerman and should thereforebe culturallyassimilated into the German Volk The Nazi German authoritiesultimately categorized the majorityof people livingin each of theseareas eitheras Germansor 'individuals of Germandescent' by enteringthem into one of the fourcategories of the DVL. In the annexed territoriesas a whole the authorities enteredaround 2.8 millionpre-war Polish citizens into the DVL. This shieldedthem from expulsion to the General Governmentor to other

Hugo Serviceis a BritishAcademy Postdoctoral Fellow at theFaculty of History,Univer- sityof Cambridge. HUGO SERVICE 653 - partsof the annexed territories thefate of around one millionpeople duringthe war, most of them residentsof the so-calledWartheland region.1Meanwhile, in occupied Czechoslovakia,the Nazi regional governorof the so-calledProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia,Rein- hard Heydrich,developed similar plans to culturally'Germanize' half of the territory'spopulation and eitherto sterilizeor to uproot the otherhalf eastwards. As thefirst step towards fulfilling this plan, between 1941 and 1943 his authoritiesethnically screened thousandsof the inhabitantsof thisterritory, categorizing each as either'Germanizable' or 'un-Germanizable'.2 The defeatof Nazi Germanyin 1945 by no means put an end to large-scaleethnic screening in East-CentralEurope. Indeed, in the aftermathof the war, as approximatelythree million 'Germans' were being expelledor forciblytransported to the US and Soviet Occupa- tion Zones of Germanyfrom Czechoslovakia, the country'spost-war - governmentdecided that since it was not alwaysclear who was a - Germanand who a Czech among the inhabitantsof theircountry anotherround of ethnicscreening would be necessary.Local courts were set up throughoutthe countryin 1945 to judge people's ethno- nationalidentity based on whateverevidence was available. In subse- quent years,they categorized thousands of people as ethnicCzechs, sparingthem fromdisplacement from the country.3While this was goingon in post-warCzechoslovakia, a similarprocess got underway in post-warPoland. This ethnicscreening process, introduced throughout the new westernand northernterritories which Poland acquired fromGermany at the end of the war,was knownas the ethnicVerifi- cationaction' (akcjaweryfikacyjna) and will be the primaryfocus of this article.

1 Zofia Boda-Krçzel, Sprawa volkslistyna GórnymSlqsku. Koncepcjelikwidacji problemu i ich realizacja,Opole, 1978, pp. 22-26 and 33; Zdzislaw Lempiriski,Przesiedlenie lusnosci niemieckiej Z województwaslqsko-dqbrowskiego w latach ig^-igjo, Katowice,1979, pp. 89-92; Wiodzimierz Borodziej,'Einleitung', in H. Lembergand W. Borodziej(eds), "UnsereHeimat ist uns ein fremdesLand geworden. . ." Die Deutschenöstlich von Oder undNeiße ig^-ig^o: Dokumenteaus polnischenArchiven, 4 vols, Marburg, 2000-04, 1, pp. 37-113(pp. 42-43); Ingo Eser, 'Die Deutschenin Oberschlesien',in ibid.,2, pp. 360-99 (pp. 372-73);Pertti Ahonen, Gustavo Corni,Jerzy Kochanowski, Rainer Schulze, Tamas Stark,Barbara Stelzl Marx, People on theMove: Forced Population Movements in Europein theSecond World War and itsAftermath, Oxford, 2008, pp. 29-34; Mark Mazower, Hitler'sEmpire: Nazi Rule in OccupiedEurope, London, 2008, pp.2 193-98. Chad Bryant,'Either German or Czech: FixingNationality in Bohemiaand Moravia, 1939-1946', Slavic Review, 61, 2002,4, pp. 683-706(pp. 686-96); Tara Zahra, 'Reclaiming Childrenfor the Nation: Germanization,National Ascription, and Democracyin the BohemianLands, 1900-1945',Central European History, 37, 2004, 4, pp. 501-43 (pp. 527- 33)-3 Bryant,'Either German or Czech',pp. 696-700;Jeremy King, Budweisers into Czechs: A Local Historyof Bohemian Politics, Princeton, NJ, 2002, pp. 194-202. 654 SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS The role ethnicscreening played in the ethniccleansing of East- CentralEurope duringand afterthe Second World War is relatively under-studied.A numberof recentbooks and articleshave looked at thissubject, including those by RichardBlanke, Chad Bryant,Andreas Hofmann,Jeremy King, BernardLinek, Piotr Madajczyk,Grzegorz Strauchold,Philipp Ther and Tara Zahra.4 Each of thesestudies has demonstratedthat it is not possible to fullyunderstand the acts of ethniccleansing carried out in thisregion during and afterthe Second WorldWar withoutcritically confronting the simplisticethno-national categorieslying behind these actions. But onlyHoffmann's and Strau- chold'sstudies have subjectedthe interaction between ethnic screening and ethniccleansing in thisregion at thistime to detailedexamination. Moreover,there has yet to be an in-depth,local-level analysis of the part ethnicscreening played in the ethniccleansing of East-Central Europe in the 1940s. - This articleseeks to provideprecisely that by focusingon the localityof Oppeln/Opole Districtin westernUpper Silesia.5'Western Upper Silesia' refersto the partof Upper Silesiawhich after the parti- tionof Upper Silesia in 1922remained in Germanyand was not incor- - poratedinto Poland the part of Upper Silesia which in Polish is referredto as SkyskOpolski. WesternUpper Silesia was one of the regionsPoland acquired fromdefeated Germany in 1945. A western Upper Silesianlocality has been chosenas thecase studyfor this article because this region was where the post-warCommunist-led Polish authoritiesfirst implemented ethnic screening in theirnew territories and wherethey did so on thelargest scale. Opole/Oppeln Districthas been selectedbecause it was one ofthe western Upper Silesiandistricts where ethnic screeningplayed a particularlyimportant role in the ethniccleansing process.

4 Richard Blanke, Polish-SpeakingGermans? Language and National Identity among the Masurians since1871, Cologne, 2001; Bryant, 'Either German or Czech'; AndreasR. Hofmann,Die Nachkriegszeitin Schlesien.Gesellschqfls- und Bevölkerungspolitikin den polnischen Siedlungsgebieten I945~I94ß->Cologne, 2000; JeremyKing, Budweisers;Bernard linek, Politykaantyniemiecka na GórnymSlasku w latach1945-1950, Opole, 2000; Piotr Madajczyk, PrzylqczenieSlaska Opolskiego do Polski1945-1Q48, Warsaw, 1996; Grzegorz Strauchold,Autochtoni, Polscy, Ntemieccy, czy . . . OdNacjonalizm doKomunizm (1945-1949), Toruñ, 2001; Philipp Ther, 'Die einheimischeBev- ölkerungdes OppelnerSchlesiens nach dem ZweitenWeltkrieg. Die Enstehehungeiner deutschenMinderheit', Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 26, 2000, pp. 407-38;Zahra, 'Reclaiming Children'. 5 By 'district'I mean both the Stadt- und Landkreis ofOppeln and thepowiat and miastoof Opole. Oppeln was the name of the districtbefore 1945. Opole has been itsname since 1945.The size ofthe population of Opole Districton 17May 1939,according to a nation- wideGerman census, was 198,100.Alfred Bohmann, Menschen und Grenzen: Strukturwandel der deutschenBevölkerung impolnischen Staats- und Verwaltungsbereich,Cologne, 1969, p. 209. HUGO SERVICE 655 This article contends that the ethnic screeningcarried out by Nazi German,Czechoslovakian and Polishauthorities in East-Central Europe duringand afterthe Second World War failed to achieve its primarygoals since it was based on a crude nationalistoutlook which soughtto distilcomplex cultural identities and collectiveself- understandingsinto simplistic national categories. This was somethingnot well understood by the onlyother historians who have looked at westernUpper Silesia's ethno-nationalVerifica- - tion' in detail Zbigniew Kowalski and Jan Misztal.6Writing in CommunistPoland in the early1980s, both historiansprovided useful empiricalinformation about the innerworkings of ethnicscreening in the regionafter the war. Yet bothpresented the same black-and-white understandingof cultural identityand self-understandingamong Upper Silesiansas the Polish officialswho implementedthe process. This meantthat they presented all pre-warinhabitants of Upper Silesia as fallinginto two nationalcategories: Germans and Poles. As will be arguedin thisarticle, it was thissimplification which lay at the heart of the failureof Verification'.

II The ethnicVerification' of the pre-warpopulation of Oppeln/Opole Districtwas part of a broad processof ethniccleansing implemented throughoutPoland by thecountry's Soviet-backed and Communist-led governmentbetween 1944 and 1949. It was partlya productof the stronganti-German feelings which were ubiquitousin Polish society followingGermany's brutal and humiliatingoccupation of the country afterSeptember 1939. But the ethniccleansing carried out in Poland between1944 and 1949 mustalso be understoodas the productof an older traditionof Polish ethnicnationalism associated since the late nineteenthcentury primarily with the figureof Roman Dmowskiand propoundedin the earlypart of the twentiethcentury by his National DemocraticParty, as well as such organizationsas the Poznañ-based PolishWestern Association (Polski Zwi^zek Zachodni). The relatively weak supportfor Communism in Poland at theend of thewar promp- ted Poland's Moscow-backedCommunist government to embracekey aspectsof thisethno-nationalist ideology in order to gain popularity

6 Zbigniew Kowalski, PowrótSlaska Opolskiegodo Polski.Organizaçja wiadçy ludowej i reguhcja problemównarodowokiowych w latach 1945-1948, 2nd edn, Opole, 1988 (ist edn, Opole, 1983); Jan Misztal, Weryfikaçjanarodowokiowa na SlaskuOpolskim 1945-1950, Opole, 1984 (hereafter, Misztal, Weryfikaçja).Misztal's 1990 book Weryfikaçjanarodowokiowa na ZjtmiachOdzyskanych, Warsaw,1990, it is true,is also mainlyconcerned with Upper Silesiaand was published afterthe fall of Communism, but is essentiallymerely a slightlymodified version of his 1984 book,exhibiting exactly the same nationalistassumptions. 656 SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS withinPolish society.The government'spost-war policy of ethno- nationalhomogenization was a clear manifestationof this.Crucially, this policy saw not only 3.6 million Germans expelled or forcibly transportedto occupied Germany fromthe post-warterritories of Poland between1945 and 1949,but also around halfa millionethnic Ukrainians and thousands of ethnic Belarusians and Lithuanians uprootedeastwards to the SovietUnion.7 As the Red Armyforced its way into Germanyin early 1945, it began to place vastswathes of pre-war eastern German territory under the controlof Polish authorities.Poland had alreadylost massiveter- ritoriesin the east to the SovietUnion in 1944 and the Polishgovern- mentwas thereforeanxious to ensurethat all ofthe Germanterritories theRed Armywas puttingunder its control in theearly months of 1945 would ultimatelybe incorporatedinto Poland by the Allied Powers when the war was over. The Polishgovernment viewed the existence of what it believedto be ethnicPolish populations in easternGerman - territories primarilyin westernUpper Silesia and southernEast - Prussia as a crucialpart of the argumentwhich it intendedto put forwardto the Allied Powersat the end of war in orderto convince themto grantPoland permanentpossession of theseterritories.8 The governmenttherefore planned both to ethnicallycleanse the pre-war easternGerman territories of Germansand, at the same time,to keep in place a largepopulation which it wouldpresent to theAllied Powers as 'autochthonousPoles'. Ethnicscreening came to be seen as the way to achieve thisdual goal of removing'Germans' fromthese territoriesand provingto the Alliesthat a large numberof 'nativePoles' alreadyresided there. The post-warPolish authoritiesapplied it throughoutthese territories in the half decade followingthe war. But ethnicscreening was first introduced,as mentionedalready, in westernUpper Silesia, as an initiativenot of Poland's centralgovernment in Warsaw but of Upper Silesia's new regional governor (Wojewoda), General Aleksander Zawadzki. Zawadzki was a CommunistParty politburo member who was sentto thecity of Katowice in earlyspring 1945 to setup a regional administration(Urz^d Wojewódzki)for the, reconstituted and expanded region of Upper Silesia (WojewództwoSl^skie). This administrative region,unlike its pre-war version, included both easternUpper Silesia - - which had been part of Poland beforethe war and western

7 T. David Gurp, A CleanSweep? The Politics of Ethnic Cleansing in WesternPoland, 1945-1960, Rochester,NY, 2006, pp. 5-12, 21-25 and 39-40; Borodziej,'Einleitung', pp. 57-58; Hofmann,Die Nachkriegszeit,pp. 272-74; Ahonen, People on the Move, pp. 96-100;Bernadetta Nitschke, Vertreibungund Aussiedlung der deutschen Bevölkerung aus Polen1945 bis 1949, Munich, 2003,8 pp. 276-77. Borodziej,'Einleitung', p. 108. HUGO SERVICE 657 Upper Silesia,which had been partof Germanybefore 1939. Zawadzki had alreadybegun to set up an ethnicscreening process in western - Upper Silesia in March 1945 referringto it as ethnicVerification5.9 It was notuntil the second half of 1945that similar Verification actions' werealso introducedin otherparts of Poland's new post-warterritories - the otherarea where a large-scaleVerification action' was later implementedbeing southern East Prussia.10 In the springof 1945, Polish officialsarriving in westernUpper Silesia began to establish special ethnic Verificationcommittees' throughoutthe region to carry out the task of determininglocal people's ethno-nationalidentity. Locals were told to begin submitting applicationsto the committeesproviding evidence of their Polish ethno-nationalidentity (narodowos'c polskd)}1 Based on thejudgements of thesecommittees, successful applicants were thenissued with 'tempo- rarycertificates of Polish nationality'12 by theirlocal districtadministration(Starostwo) or townadministration (Zarz^d Miejski).13 In the newlyrenamed district of Opole, the Verificationaction' was 14 introducedby arrivingPolish officials in late spring1945. The officials createda large numberof Verificationcommittees' to carryout the task ofjudging ethno-nationalidentity in the district.A single'town verificationcommittee' dealt with all applicationsfrom residents of the townof Opole, while an entirethree-tier system of Verificationcom- mittees'was set up to do the same in the surroundingrural part of the district.15 At the bottomof these three tiers stood the Village verification committees'.There were around ninety of these operating in thedistrict

9 Eser,'Die Deutschenin Oberschlesien', u pp. 389-90; Kowalski,Powrót, pp. 296-97. Strauchold,Autochtoni, pp. 50-52; Borodziej,'Einleitung', pp. 108-09; Hofmann,Die Nachkriegszeit,11 p. 284. Kowalski,Powrót, pp. 296-97and 301;Misztal, Weryfikacja, pp. 94 and 98-99; Eser,'Die Deutschenin Oberschlesien',pp. 388-91;Hofmann, Die Nachkriegszeit,p. 283. 12In Polish: zaswiadczeniao 13 'tymczasowe przynaleznoscinarodowej.' Kowalski,Powrót, pp. 296-97 and 301; Eser, 'Die Deutschenin Oberschlesien', Hofmann,Die pp.14 388-91; Nachkriegszeit,p. 283. Katowice,Archiwum Paristwowe w Katowicach(hereafter, APK), 185/4,sygn. 21, 208-09, 'Situationreport' by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 29-545-1D Opole, ArchiwumParistwowe w Opolu (hereafter,APO), 185,sygn. 85, 3, Reportby theSocial-Political Department of Opole townadministration, 24.8.45; APK, 185/4,sygn. 435) 5I-52>Report on inspectionof the 'verificationaction' in Opole District,written in thesecond half of December 1945; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 11,Report written by thehead of the townadministration's Social-Political Department, 20.12.45; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 33, 'Situationreport' by thehead ofOpole townadministration's Social-Political Department, 21.6.46;APO, 178,sygn. 41, 1-4,'Situation report' on period20.8.45-20.9.45; APK, 185/4, sygn.435, 53-56, Reporton an inspectionof the 'verificationaction' in Opole District, datingfrom the second half of December 1945. 658 SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS and theywere the firstcommittees to examinethe Verification'applications.Their job was to categorizeeach applicationas 'indisputable5, 'rejected'or 'contentious'before sending them to one of the district's twenty-one'commune verification committees' for further inspection. The communecommittees, which were each in chargeof the screening process in several of the district'svillages, then re-categorizedthe applicationsas accepted,rejected or contentious.Only thoseplaced in the last of these threecategories were then sent to Opole District's single'district verification committee', at the top of the hierarchy,to make finaldecisions.16 A similarhierarchy of 'verificationcommittees' was set up in each of westernUpper Silesia'sdistricts in the courseof 1945,although there was a good deal of variationin the numberof committeesoperating in each district.17 In termsof how thesecommittees were composed,the villageand commune'verification committees' in Opole Districtwere each said to - containat least three'local Polish people' (miejscowaludnosc polska) and in manyof the 'villageverification committees' these 'local Polish people' may even have constituteda majorityof the committeemem- bers. But it is not exactlyclear what the authoritiesmeant by 'local Polishpeople'. They may oftenhave meantpre-war residents of western Upper Silesia as a whole ratherthan of the particularvillages and communesin whichthe committee actually operated. In any case, they are all likelyto have been people who had demonstratedtheir Polish nationalistcredentials to the authoritiesby provingthey had been membersof Polish organizations in theinternar period. The remaining membersof the committeeswere all outsidersfrom the pre-warterri- toriesof Poland who had been givenofficial administrative positions in the districtafter spring 1945. The 'villageverification committees' wereeach headed by a villagemayor (Soltys) or local head teacher,the communecommittees by a communemayor (Wójt).18 The districtand town'verification committees', which were headed respectivelyby Opole District'schief official(Starosta) and Opole town's president,were much largerand had broader memberships. Closely reflectinginstructions issued by regionalgovernor Zawadzki in summer1945, Opole's 'townverification committee', for example, containedrepresentatives from the Polish Workers'Party, the Polish SocialistParty, the Polish Peasants' Party,the DemocraticParty, the

16 APK, 185/4,sygn. 435, 53-56, Report on an inspectionof the Verificationaction' in fromthe second half of December Misztal,Weryfikacja, p. 88. Opole17 District,dating 1945; 18Ibid., pp. 87-88. APK, 185/4,sygn. 435, 53-56, Reporton inspectionof the Verificationaction' in Opole District,dating from the second half of December1945; Misztal, Weryfikacja, p. 91; Ther,'Die einheimischeBevölkerung', pp. 423 and 430-31;Madajczyk, Przyiqczenie, p. 176; Strauchold,Autochtoni, p. 83; Kowalski,Poivrât, p. 305. HUGO SERVICE 659 SecurityPolice (Urz^d BezpieczeñstwaPublicznego), the Citizens' Militia(that is, the regularpolice), the Committeefor Former Political Prisoners,the school inspectorate,the Associationof Veteransof the Silesian Uprisingsand the Polish WesternAssociation. The 'district verificationcommittee' was similarlycomposed.19 The involvementof thePolish Western Association in the'verification action', in particular, highlightsthe ethnicnationalist goals lyingbehind this screening process.This staunchlynationalist association had been foundedin Poznan in 192 1 and, out of politicalnecessity, had acceptedclose cooperation with the Communist-ledPolish governmentafter 1944. It had been givenan importantrole in the Verificationaction' throughout western Upper Silesia.20 Zawadzki demanded, moreover,that not just the village and communeVerification committees' but also the districtand townVer- ificationcommittees' contain representativesfrom the 'local Polish population'.Opole's nineteen-member'town verificationcommittee' apparentlycontained as many as nine pre-warresidents of the town in August1945. All of themwere said to be eitherformer members of the internarAssociation of Poles in Germany(Zwi^zek Polaków w Niemczech)or 'trustedindividuals who are veryknowledgeable about the local region',meaning people who had provento the authorities that in the past they had engaged in Polish nationalistactivities.21 Opole District,in fact,was ratherunusual in having'verification committees'with significant representation of 'autochthonousPoles'. Else- wherein westernUpper Silesia it was commonfor the committeesto containnot a singlepre-war resident of the region.22Zawadzki criti- cized thisin a circularsent out on 24 October 1945,invalidating all decisionsreached by committeeswhich did not containpre-war residentsof westernUpper Silesia.23Yet givenhow manyseats in Opole District'stwo most important'verification committees' were assigned to officials,policemen and politicalactivists - most,if not all, ofwhom - were outsidersfrom central Poland it is clear thatthe participation of pre-warresidents in the Verification'process had more to do with vestingthe processwith legitimacythan enhancingthe accuracy of judgementsmade about the ethno-nationalidentity of local people.24

19 APO, 185,sygn. 85, 11,Report by the head of Opole townadministration's Social- PoliticalDepartment, 20.1245; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 3, Reportby Opole townadministration's Social-PoliticalDepartment, 24.8.45; Hofmann,Die Nachkriegszeit,pp. 284-85; Kowalski,Powrót, p. 299. 20Hofmann, Die A Clean and 21 Nachkriegszeit,pp. 272-73; Gurp, Sweep?,pp. 21-2^ 3Q-40. APO, 185,sygn. 85, 3, Reportby Opole townadministration's Social-Political Depart- ment,24.8.45. ¿¿Kowalski, Powrót, pp. 30^-06. 23Hofmann, Die Nachkriegszeit,pp. 200-01; Kowalski, PowróL pp. qqo-qi. 24 Hofmann,Die Nachkriegszeit,p. 285. 66O SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS So how exactlydid thesecommittees reach decisionsabout whether a local residentwas an ethnic Pole or not? In fact,they received surprisinglylittle guidance from Upper Silesia'sregional administration in Katowice on what counted for Polish ethno-nationalidentity.25 Accordingto one individual,who had been a memberof Opole's 'districtverification committee' at thistime, they therefore devised their own criteria for determiningPolish ethno-nationalidentity. He claimed: A goodcommand of Polish was demandedas wellas [. . .] factsattesting to an affiliationwith the Polishnation - such as membershipof the Associationof Poles in Germany,subscription before the war to Polish newspapersand books,attendance of Polish minority schools, [experience of]persecution and repressionat thehands of the Germans, participation ofrelatives in theplebiscite campaign or in theSilesian Uprisings, involve- mentin excursionsto Polandincluding pilgrimages [...], RomanCatholic faith,and a loyalattitude towards Polish affairs and thePoles.26 - This suggestedthat 'behavioural'criteria for Polish ethnicity such as what organizationsan individualhad chosen to join before1945 and how an individualhad acted duringthe plebiscitecampaign and - SilesianUprisings of 1919-21 were attributedby the committeean equal importanceto the supposedly'objective' criteria of language and religion.Opole's committeewas not doing anythingunique in this respect.Despite offeringlittle in the way of specificguidelines, Kato- wice did, fromthe outset,advise the region's'verification committees' to base theirdecisions on Polish ethno-nationalidentity just as much on 'behavioural'criteria as on 'objective'ones.27 Nevertheless,the versionof proceedingspresented by this former memberof Opole's 'districtverification committee' was clearlyhighly idealized.Because westernUpper Silesia'sauthorities wished to demonstratethat a large proportionof the region'sinhabitants were ethnic Poles - and therebystrengthen Poland's territorialclaim to theregion - the 'verificationcommittees' simply could not affordto applystrict criteriawhen judging the applications.In practice,the committees were often,therefore, willing to 'verify'people as ethnicPoles based solelyon thesignatures of support they received from pre-war residents who had been designatedas 'trusted'(that is, Polish nationalist)by the authorities.And in certainplaces, very small numbers of 'trusted' pre-warresidents supplied signatures of support for very large numbers - of applicants people whom theyrarely personally knew.28

25Ibid. pp. 286 and 300. 26 Cited in ibid.,pp. 285-86; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 11,Report by the head of the town administration'sSocial-Political Department, 20.12.4^. Hofmann,Die and 281. 2827Misztal, Wervfikaga, pp. 94-96; Nachkriegszeit,pp. 274-79 Misztal,Weryfikacja, pp. 94-99. HUGO SERVICE 66l This practicewas clearlyin line withregional governor Zawadzki's intentions.He made it absolutelyplain to the region'sofficials that he did not want the Verificationcommittees' to be too stringentwhen - judgingPolish ethno-nationalidentity complainingin an October 1945circular, for example, that too manyapplications were being rejected.29This circularmay have been what promptedOpole District's chiefofficial, at the end of October,to inspectthe camps in the local area wherepeople whose Verification'applications had been rejected, or who refusedto submitapplications, were being interned. He report- edly came across individualsin these camps who could speak Polish and immediatelyordered theirrelease so that they could undergo Verification'as ethnicPoles.30 In the firstyear or so of the Verification'process Opole District's Verificationcommittees' rejected very few applications.Of the app- roximately59,000 locals who had alreadysubmitted applications for Verification'by theend of 1945,around 57,000 were Verified' as ethnic - - Poles and only 1595 applications less than 3 per cent were rejected.Twenty-nine per centof Opole District'sentire pre-war population had thereforealready been Verified'as ethnic Poles by this time.31 EveryoneVerified' as an ethnicPole in Opole Districtwas, ofcourse, entitledto continueliving there. The problemwas thatPolish settlers fromboth central Poland and thepre-war eastern territories of Poland, whichthe SovietUnion had effectivelyannexed from Poland in 1944, flooded into Opole Districtin 1945. The firstcargo train carrying settlersfrom Poland's ceded easternterritories had arrivedin 32 already Oppeln/Opole townin March 1945. Because Opole townhappened to be one of thefew places in westernUpper Silesiawhere the Soviets' recently-installedbroad-gauge railway came to an end, huge numbers

29Kowalski, PowróL pp. 330-31. 30 APK, 185/4,sygn. 435, 53-56, Report by chairman of the 'regional inspection committee',written in thesecond half of December 1945; Edmund Nowak, Obozy na SlqskuOpolskim w systende powojennych obozów w Polsce(ig^-ig^o). Historiai implikacja,Opole, 2002, pp. 213- 0 Opole's 'districtverification committee' had acceptedaround 53,000 applications and rejectedonly 1266, while Opole's 'townverification committee' had accepted3897 applica- tionsand rejectedonly 329. APK, 185/4,sygn. 435, 51-52,Report on the 'verification action'in Opole District,written in thesecond half of December 1945; APK, 185/4,sygn. 435, 51-52,Report on the 'verificationaction' in Opole District,written in the second halfof December1945; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 11,Report by Opole townadministration's Social-PoliticalDepartment, 20.12.45; APO, 178, sygn.41, 13-15,'Situation report' on period 20.12. 45-20. 1.46; HeinrichBartsch, Die StädteSchlesiens. Daten und Fakten zu ihrer landes-,kultur-, wirtschafte-, und sozialgeschichtlichen Entwicklung und Bedeutung, Dortmund, 1977, 12. p.32 WlodzimierzBorodziej, Stanislaw Ciesielski and JerzyKochanowski, 'Wstçp', in Giesielski(ed.), Przesiedlenieludnosci poslkiej z kresówwschodnich do Polski1944-1947, Warsaw, X999>PP- 5~5x (P- 43)5Bayreuth, Bundesarchiv, Ost-Dokumentation (hereafter, BOD), 2, 229,48-52, Witness report by AlfonsS. fromOppeln/Opole town, 23.1.49. 662 SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS ofeastern Polish settlers were unloaded there from spring 1945 onwards withthe aim oftransferring them onto narrow-gauge trains for onward transportation.33Meanwhile, large numbersof settlersalso arrived fromcentral Poland - some of them unassisted,but most of them transportedto the districton goods trains.34By early summer1945, 8,000 to 10,000Polish settlers were said to be arrivingin Opole town daily,many of whom could notbe immediatelytransported onwards.35 To deal withthis growing mass of homelesssettlers, a makeshiftcamp was set up next to Opole's railwaystation, where conditionsquickly began to worsen.By mid-summer1945, 27,000 Polish settlers were stay- ing thereand a seriousepidemic had brokenout amongthem.36 Their numberrapidly grew, peaking in late September1945, when 88,000 were livingeither at this camp or in barracksaround the town of Opole.37 Veryfew of thesepeople could be givenpermanent homes in Opole District.By the end of 1945,only 15,000to 20,000 Polishsettlers had receivedpermanent places to live in the Opole District.The primary reason forthis was thatonly a minorityof the pre-warresidents had abandonedthe districtfor good duringthe flight of local civiliansfrom the Red Armyin January 1945. Of the largenumber of local residents who had initiallyvacated the districtas the Red Armyinvaded in late January1945, many had alreadyreturned to thedistrict before the war ended or withinweeks of thewar's end. Only in the townof Oppeln/ Opole itself,where most people had regardedthemselves as Germans before the war, was the majorityof the population permanently uprootedin thecourse of this mass flight. Correspondingly, the majority of Polish settlerswho did manage to get permanenthomes in Opole Districtafter the war were allottedhouses and flatsin the town of Opole.38

33Hofmann, Die NachkriezszeiLp. ioq; Eser, 'Die Deutschen in Oberschlesien',p. 384. 34 Hofmann, Die Nachkriegszeit,p. 108. 35 Ibid., p. 109; APK 185/4, sygn.436, 60-61, Report on an inspectionof Opole District which took place 6-19.2.46; APK 185/4, sygn.27/1,43-47, 'Situation report' by Opole districtadministration, 0.8.4^. 36 APK 185/4,sygn. 25, 12-14, 'Situationreport' by Opole districtadministration's Social- PoliticalDepartment, 20.6.45; Hofmann,Die Nachkriegszeit,pp. 109-10; Eser, 'Die Deutschen in Oberschlesien',p. 384. 37 APO 178, sygn. 41, 1-4, 'Situation report' by Opole District's chief officialon the period38 20.8.45-20.9.45. APO 178, sygn. 41, 5-8, 'Situation report' by Opole Districts chief officialon the period 20.9.45-20.10.45; APO 178, sygn. 41, 10-12, 'Situation report' by Opole District's chief officialon the period 20.11.45-20. 12. 45; APO 178, sygn. 41, 13-15, 'Situation report' by Opole District'schief official on the period 20. 12.45-20. 11.46;APO 185, sygn.85, 14-15, Report by Opole town administration'sSocial-Political Department, 21.2.46; BOD 2, 229, 1-2, Witnessreport by A. fromOppeln/Opole town, 15.7.55;BOD 1, 243, 299-301, Witness report (guidelines) by Franz G. from Rogau (Rogów), 8.9.55; BOD 1, 243, 174-81, Witness reportby Georg K. fromHinterwasser (Zawada), 24.10.57; BOD 1, 243, 349-51, Witnessreport (guidelines) by Georg S. fromTauentzien (Okoly), undated. HUGO SERVICE 663 As indicatedalready, any pre-warresident of Opole Districtwhose 'verification'application was rejectedor who refusedto submitan applicationwas categorizedas a Germanand, wherepossible, interned in one of severalspecial camps forGermans situated in the local area, wherethey were subjected to veryharsh conditions and forcedlabour.39 At thesame time,the district's authorities encouraged those locals who thoughtof themselvesas Germansto migrateto GermanyVoluntarily' by introducingvarious anti-Germanmeasures and issuingso-called 'passesfor permanent emigration'. Officially, around 2,500 people had - leftthe districtvoluntarily by the end of 1945 thoughthe actual figurewas probablyseveral thousand higher than this.40 The Verificationaction' continued into 1946,Opole District'spopu- lationby thispoint apparentlyexhibiting 'utter indifference' towards it.41It was in the springof 1946 thatPoland's centralgovernment in Warsawfinally decided to takecontrol of the Verification' process. The Ministryfor Recovered Territoriessent out an order at the startof April1946 which had twoprincipal consequences. First, it broughtthe

39APK 185/4,22, 49-51, Report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department,5.6.45; APK 185/4,sygn. 27/1, 43-47, 'Situation report' by Opole District's chiefofficial, 9.8.45; APO 178,sygn. 41, 1-4, 'Situation report' on theperiod 20.8.45-20.9.45 by Opole District'schief official; APK 185/4,syg11- 435> 5I-525 Report on the'verification action'in Opole District,written in thesecond half of December1945; APK 185/4,syg11- 435,53-56, Report on an inspectionof the 'verificationaction' in Opole District,written in thesecond half of December1945; APO 178,41, 5-8, 'Situationreport' on theperiod 20.9.45-20.10.45by Opole District'schief official; APO 185,sygn. 85, 16, Reportby the head of Opole townadministration's Social-Political Department, 21. 1.46; BOD 1, 243, 225-26,Witness report by Jakob P. fromKranst (Chrzajstowice), September 1956; BOD 1, 243, 281-83,Witness report (guidelines) by Marta D. fromPlümkenau (Radomierowice), 15.9.56;BOD 1, 243, 271-74,Witness reports (guidelines) by EmilieB. fromNeuwedel (Swieciny),29.8.55; BOD 1, 243, 275-76,Witness report by WilhelmB. fromNeuwedel, 30.7.55;BOD 1, 243, 93-96, Witnessreport by M. T. fromEichtal (DajDrówka Górna), 21.1.57; Madajczyk, Przytqczenie, pp. 220-21; Nowak, Obozy, pp. 212-17;Eser, 'Die Deutschen in Oberschlesien', 40 p. 387. APO 185,sygn. 85, 13, Reportby the head of Opole townadministration's Social- PoliticalDepartment, 16. 1.46; APK 185/4,sygn. 435, 51-52,Report on the 'verification action'in Opole District,written in thesecond half of December 1945; APK 185/4,sygn. 435,53-56, Report on the'verification action' in Opole District,written in thesecond half of December1945; APO 185,sygn. 85, 41-42, 'Special situationreport' by Opole town administration'sSocial-Political Department, 13. 11.46; APO 185,sygn. 85, 47, Reportby the head of Opole townadministration's Social-Political Department, 17. 1.47; APO 185, sygn.85, 32, 'Situationreport' by thehead ofOpole townadministration's Social-Political Department,21.6.46; APO 178,sygn. B15, i-ia, 'Situationreport' by Opole districtadministration'sSocial-Political Department, 4.12.46; BOD 1, 243 and BOD 2, 229, numerous witnessreports in thesefiles, especially BOD 2, 229,3-4 byAlfred von A. fromAlthammer (Paliwoda),10.4.51 and BOD 2, 229, 58-62 by Oskar Tilgnerfrom Carlsruhe (Pokój), 19.6.52; Madajczyk,Przylqczenie, pp. 200-02 and 222-23; Eser, 'Die Deutschen in Oberschlesien',pp. 384,087, qqi- an¿ qq7 41 APO, 178,sygn. 41, 13-15,'Situation report' by Opole District'schief official on the period20. 12. 45-20. 1.46. 664 SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS otherVerification actions', introduced elsewhere in the new territories in the second halfof 1945,procedurally into line withthe Verification action5being carriedout in westernUpper Silesia.42Secondly, and more importantlyfor Opole Districtand the rest of westernUpper Silesia,believing that almost everybody eligible for Verification5 in the new territorieshad by spring1946 alreadybeen Verified5as an ethnic Pole, the Polishgovernment ordered the dissolutionof all Verification committees5be completedby the end of the summerof 1946.43 The problemwith this was thatwestern Upper Silesia was stillwit- nessinga steadystream of pre-warresidents returning from Germany - afterfleeing from the Red Armyin the earlymonths of 1945 and theyinvariably submitted applications for Verification5 on theirreturn to the region.By the second halfof 1946,Opole District'sVerification committees5were, in fact,almost exclusively Verifying5 recent returnees fromGermany.44 Yet, despitethe factthat thousands of Verification5 applicationswere being submittedby these returninglocals, Opole District'sofficials were forced to dissolvetheir Verification committees5 in the autumnof 1946,requiring them simply to hand over the taskof evaluatingVerification5 applications to administrativedepartments. The committeesoperating in the rural part of Opole Districttrans- ferredtheir functions to Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department,while the 'townverification committee5 (dissolved on 19 November 1946) transferredthem to Opole town administration's Social-PoliticalDepartment.45 The same proceduralchange to the Verification5process was witnessedin all of westernUpper Silesia5s districtsin the second half of 1946.46Given that by this time the majorityof the region'sadministrative posts were filledby outsiders fromcentral Poland ratherthan pre-warresidents of westernUpper

42 Borodziej,'Einleitung', p. 109; Hofmann,Die Nachkriegszeit,pp. 284 and 300-01; Kowalski,PowróL pp. 208-00 and 338-30. 43 Hofmann,Die Nachkriepszeitp. 301. 44APO, 178,sygn. 41, 34-36, 'Situationreport' on the period20.6.46-20.7.46; APK, 185/4,syg11- 436, 62-64,Report on an inspectionof the 'verification action' in Opole Dis- trictcarried out 10-23June X946; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 33, 'Situationreport' by Opole town administration'sSocial-Political Department, 21.6.46; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 35, 'Situation report'by Opole townadministration's Social-Political Department, 21.8.46; APO, 185, sygn.85, 44, 'Situationreport' by Opole townadministration's Social-Political Department, 21.12.46;APK, 185/4,sygn. 39, 54~54a, 'Situation report' by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political 45 Department,31.12.46. APK, 185/4,sygn. 39, 54~54a, 'Situationreport' by Opole districtadministration's Social-PoliticalDepartment, 31.12.46; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 43, 'Situationreport' by the head of Opole townadministration's Social-Political Department, 21. 11.46; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 41-42,'Exceptional situation report' by the head of Opole townadministration's Social- PoliticalDepartment, 13. 11. 46; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 47, Reportby thehead of Opole town administration'sSocial-Political 46 Department,17. 1.47. Kowalski,Powrót, p. 375. HUGO SERVICE 665 Silesia, local participationin the 'verification5process was now very limited.47 In 1947,as the influxof applicationsfrom recent returnees continued, Opole townadministration's Social-Political Department was itself suddenlydissolved. Now in chargeof the Verification'in both Opole townand the ruralpart of the district,Opole districtadministration's Social-PoliticalDepartment was unable to processthe large number of applicationsstill flowing in fromreturning pre-war residents. A large backlogof Verification'applications thus quickly formed.48 The back- log was finallyresolved in 1948,but applicationscontinued to arrive fromreturnees; and it was not until 1949 that the return-migration finallypetered out, causingthe Verification'applications at last to dry up. The Verificationaction' was finallybrought to an end in Opole Districtand in all otherwestern Upper Silesiandistricts in the summer of 1949.49

47 BOD (see note 32 above) 2, 229, 1-2, Witnessreport by A. fromOppeln/Opole town,15.7.55; BOD 1, 243, 379-80,Witness report (guidelines) by E.D. fromWalldorf (Wawelno),undated; BOD 1, 243, 105-15,Witness report by Magda E. fromHopfental (Chmielowice),24.5.56; BOD 1, 243,335-37, Witness report by Karl B. fromSchönkirch (Chrzasczyce),19.8.55; BOD 1, 243,277-80, Witness report by Frau K. fromOderwinkel (Kajy Opolskie),30.5.59; BOD 1,243, 33-36, Witness report (guidelines) by Gustav R. from Blumenthal(Krzywa Gòra), undated; BOD 1, 243, 25-27,Witness report (guidelines) by FranzG. fromBergdorf (Daniec), undated; BOD 1,243, 13-16, Witness report (guidelines) byJosef J. fromEichberg (Dçbiniec),, 19.12.54; BOD 1, 243,271-74, Witness report (guidelines)by EmilieB. fromNeuwedel (Swieciny), 29.8.55; BOD 1, 243,67-72, Witness report (guidelines)by Arthur M. fromDershau (Suchy Bór); BOD 1,243, 289-93, Witness report (guidelines)by Julius T. fromProskau (Prószków), 14.4.56; BOD 1, 243,299-301, Witness report(guidelines) by FranzG. fromRogau (Rogów),8.9.55; BOD 1, 243, 121-22,Letter writtenby Herr G. fromFalkendorf (Falkowice), 8.4.1959; Ther, 'Die einheimische Bevölkerung',pp. 423 and 430-31;Madajczyk, Przyiqczenie, p. 176; Strauchold, Autochtoni, p.48 83; Kowalski,Powrót, p. 305. APO, 185,sygn. 85, 47, Reportby the head of Opole townadministration's Social- PoliticalDepartment, 17.1.47; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 48, 'Situationreport' by the head of Opole townadministration's Social-Political Department, 21. 1.47; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 51, 'Situationreport' by thehead ofOpole townadministration's Social-Political Department, 21.3.47;APO, 178,sygn. 62, 7-11, 'Situationreport' by Opole districtadministration's Social-PoliticalDepartment, 1.4.47; APO, 178,sygn. 62, 12-14,'Situation report' by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 2.5.47; APO, 178,sygn. 62, 16-18, 'Situationreport' by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 6.6.47; APO, 178,sygn. 62, 21-23,'Situation report' by Opole districtadministration's Social- PoliticalDepartment, 12.8.47. There are no more'situation reports' by Opole townadministration'sSocial-Political Department in fileAPO, 185, sygn.85 afterthe one dated 21.4.47.49 APO, 178,sygn. 65, 7-8, 'Currentissues' report' by Opole districtadministration's Social-PoliticalDepartment, 2.3.48; APO, 178,sygn. 62, 12-14,'Situation report' by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 2.5.47; APO, 178,sygn. 62, 16-18, 'Situationreport' by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 6.6.47; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 11-12,'Current issues' report by Opole districtadministration's Social- PoliticalDepartment, 7.4.48; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 23-24,'Current issues' report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 6.5.48; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 56-57, 'Currentissues' reportby Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 666 SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS In the course of this action, Opole District'sauthorities had succeeded in Verifying'a verylarge proportionof the district'spre-war populationas ethnicPoles. As one districtofficial put it in November 1949,c[t]he native population has yieldedto theverification process'.50 Altogether,Opole District's Verificationcommittees' and Social- PoliticalDepartments had Verified'as ethnicPoles, accordingto one source,139,944 individuals (including children) between 1945 and 1949. This suggestedthat 72 per cent of the district'sentire pre-war populationwas Verified'as ethnicPoles afterthe war.51 The figurefor western Upper Silesia as a wholewas also large:56 per cent.52 This massivefigure had been achieved,as we have seen,by avoiding a stringentapproach to the Verification'of pre-warresidents. What is striking,however, is thatthis approach extended to consideringformer Nazi Partymembers for Verification'as ethnicPoles. In fact,Opole District'sauthorities allowed not onlyformer Nazi Partymembers but even formerBrown Shirts and SS men to submitVerification' applica- tionsafter the war.53 Thirty former Nazi Partymembers were actually Verified'as ethnicPoles by Opole's 'districtverification committee' in the initialmonths of the action. This musthave happened before October 1945 when Upper Silesia's regional governor,Zawadzki, sentout an orderto the region'sofficials instructing them not to allow local Verificationcommittees' to Verify'former Nazi Partymembers

49 Continued 4.9.48; APO, 178, sygn.65, 50-52, Report by Opole districtadministration's Social- PoliticalDepartment on thefirst two quarters of 1948;APO, 178,sygn. 65, 25-26,'Current issues'report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 1.6.48; APO, 178,sygn. 113, 64-65, Reporton 'the liquidationof the tracesof Germanlanguage and culture'by the head ofOpole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 31.7.48; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 54-55, 'Current issues' report by Opole districtadministration's Social- PoliticalDepartment, 4.8.48; APO, 178,sygn. 64, 7-8, Reportby Opole districtadministration'sSocial-Political Department on theperiod 1.1.48-31. 12.48; APO, 178,sygn. 64, 36, Reportby Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 5.8.49; APO, 178, sygn.64, 43, Report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 25.11.49; APO, 178,sygn. 64, 14,Report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Depart- ment,8.3.4Q; Kowalski, Powrót, p. 377. 50 APO, 178, sygn.64, 43, Reportby Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department,2^.11.40. 5Î This figureis fromUpper Silesia's regionaladministration, dated 1.7.49,cited in Kowalski,Powrót, p. 381 and Misztal,Weryfikacja, p. 158. Otherfigures suggest that the numberwas under130,000. See APO, 178,sygn. 65, 17-21,Report on the're-Polonization action'by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 21.4.48; APO, 178, sygn.64, 43, Report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 25.11.49.52 Misztal, Weryfikacja,p. 158; Bohmann,Menschen, p. 209; Eser, 'Die Deutschenin Oberschlesien',p. qqi. 53 APO, 178,sygn. 41, 1-4, 'Situationreport' by Opole District'schief official on period 20.8.45-20.9.45;APO, 178, sygn.65, 56-57, 'Currentissues' reportby Opole district administration'sSocial-Political Department, 4.9.48. HUGO SERVICE 667 as ethnicPoles. He instructedlocal committeesinstead to send any applicationsfrom former party members, which they did not wish to reject,to Upper Silesia's regionaladministration in Katowice forfur- therconsideration.54 Opole District'sauthorities were apparently being toldat thistime by 'trusted'pre-residents that many of the former Nazi Partymembers living in the district'had neverconcealed theirPolish ethnicity,always used the Polish language etc.', and had onlyjoined theparty because they had been pressuredinto it by the German authorities.55The famoussociologist Stanislaw Ossowski was told the same by Polishnationalist locals when he visitedthis area in August1945.56 The attitudeof Poland's centralgovernment in Warsaw towardsthis issuechanged over time.In July1945 it ruledthat former members of the Nazi Partyand otherNazi formationswere ineligiblefor 'tempo- rarycertificates of Polishnationality'. But by April1946 it had decided that formerNazi Party membershipshould not be viewed as an absoluteobstacle to 'verification'as an ethnicPole since many had been 'coerced' intojoining the party.57 Severalthousand 'verification' applications were probably submitted by formerNazi Partymembers in Opole Districtbetween 1945 and - 1949 a largeproportion of whichwere sentto the regionaladmin- istrationin Katowicefor further consideration. What numberof these applicantswere ultimately'verified' as ethnicPoles cannotbe said for - certain but some definitelywere. Several thousandformer Nazi Partymembers are estimatedto have been 'verified'as ethnicPoles in westernUpper Silesia as a whole.58

54APK, 185/4,sygn. 435, 53-56, Reporton the 'verificationaction' in Opole District, writtenin thesecond half of December 1945; Kowalski, Powrót, pp. 330-31and 350-51. 55APK, 185/4,sygn. 22, 49-51, 'Situationreport' by Opole districtadministration's Social-PoliticalDepartment, 5.6.45; APK, 185/4,syg11- 25> Ï2-I4, Reportby Opole district administration'sSocial-Political Department, 20.6.4.^. 56 StanislawOssowski, 'Zagadnienia wiçzi regionalneji wiçzi narodowejna Sla^sku Opolskim',in Ossowski,Dziela, 6 vols,Warsaw, 1966-70, 3, pp. 251-300(pp. 271,285 and 296).57 Hofmann,Die Nachkriegszeit,pp. 284 and 301;Borodziej, 'Einleitung', p. 109;Kowalski, PowróLpp. 2q8-qq and 338-30. 58 APK, 185/4,sygn. 436, 60-61,Report on an inspectionof the 'verificationaction' in Opole Districtcarried out 6-19 February1946; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 32, 'Situationreport' by Opole townadministration's Social-Political Department, 21.5.46; APK, 185/4,syg11- 436, 62-64, Reporton an inspectionof the 'verificationaction' in Opole Districtcarried out 10-23June X946;APO, 178, sygn.62, 12-14,'Situation report' by Opole district administration'sSocial-Political Department, 2.5.47; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 56-57, 'Current issues'report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 4.9.48; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 63-65, 'Currentissues' report by Opole districtadministration's Social- PoliticalDepartment, 5.1 1.48; APO, 178,sygn. 64, 7-8, Reportby Opole districtadministration'sSocial-Political Department report on theperiod 1.1. 48-31. 12. 48; Kowalski,Powrót, PP-SS0^1 and 35O~52- 668 SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS In practice,most of theformer Nazi Partymembers who made suc- cessfulapplications were able to show thattheir jobs would have been at riskhad theynot joined the Nazi Party.One successfulapplicant fromOpole District,for example,claimed that he had been a pro- Polishactivist in the plebisciteperiod and had joined the Nazi Party only to avoid losing his positionas the local mayor of his village. AnotherOpole Districtresident succeeded in convincingofficials that he had onlyjoined the Nazi Party(and Germanizedhis surname)to retainhis job by includingin his applicationa letterof supportfrom the Special Committeefor Former Concentration Camp Prisonersin Bamberg.This letterexplained that he was a formerpolitical prisoner who had foughtagainst Germany and helped many Poles to escape fromcamps duringthe war.59 Because so manyof Opole District'spre-war residents were Verified' as ethnicPoles between1945 and 1949,relatively few locals wereforci- blyremoved from the district. This was in starkcontrast to themassive forcedtransportation of Germanscarried out in mostother localities in Poland'snew territoriesin thisperiod. Nevertheless, some 'Germans' wereforcibly transported from Opole Districtat thistime. This process got underway in August1946 when two trainsdeparted from Opole town.The local residentswho had been categorizedas Germansin the courseof the Verificationaction' were gathered together at a collection camp in Opole town,loaded into goods trainsand transportedto a large collectioncamp in Ghibczycein southernUpper Silesia. There theywere unloaded,subjected to a luggageinspection, crammed back - - intogoods wagons up to thirty-sixpeople per wagon and transportedto the BritishOccupation Zone of Germany.Another goods trainleft in December 1946;this time those transported were forced to spend several nightsof extremecold at the rudimentarycamp in Glubczycebefore being transportedto the Soviet Zone. Only small contingentsof residentswere sent to Germanyin subsequentyears. Perhapsaround 5,000 residentsof Opole District,in total,were transported to Germanybetween 1946 and 1949. Significantly,many of - them had registeredvoluntarily for transportation very often afterbeing Verified'as ethnicPoles. The district'sauthorities justified sending these VerifiedPoles' to Germany by claiming that they were merely'correcting' the 'mistakes'made duringthe Verification' process.60

59 60Misztal, Weryfikaga, pp. 142-44. APO 185,sygn. 85, 35, 'Situationreport' by thehead of Opole townadministration s Social-PoliticalDepartment, 21.8.46; APK 185/4,sygn. 39, 54~54a, 'Situationreport' by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 31.12.46; APO 185,sygn. 85, 44, 'Situationreport' by Opole townadministration's Social-Political Department, 21.12.46; ÁPO 178,sygn. 62, 2-3, 'Situationreport' by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department,30.1.47; APO 185, sygn.85, 47, Reportby Opole town administration's HUGO SERVICE 669 Since so fewpre-war residents were forcibly transported from Opole Districtbetween 1946 and 1949, the authoritiesstruggled to provide Polish settlerswith permanent homes thereduring these years. From spring 1946 onwards,the authoritiesconcentrated their effortson actuallyshifting Polish settlers out of the district,sending them to the under-populateddistricts of northernLower Silesia. Nevertheless, around40,000 settlershad been permanentlysettled in Opole District - by the end of 1940s the majorityof themin the townof Opole.61 The 'ethniccleansing' of Opole Districtbetween 1945 and 1949, therefore,did not involveuprooting the entireresident population and - replacingit with Polish settlersfrom elsewhere as it did in most otherlocalities in Poland'snew territories.These processesof uprooting

60 Continued Social-PoliticalDepartment, 17. 1.47; APO 178,sygn. 62, 4-14 and 21-23,'Situation reports' byOpole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 3.3.47, 1.4.47, 2.5.47, 12.8.47; APO 178,sygn. 65, 63-65,'Current issues' report by Opole districtadministration's Social- PoliticalDepartment, 5. 11.48; APO 178,sygn. 64, 12-13,'Current issues' report by the department,24.1.49; APO 178,sygn. 64, 7-8, Reporton theyear 1948by Opole district administration'sSocial-Political Department, undated; APO 178,sygn. 63, 9-10,Report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political department, 7.1.49; APO 178,sygn. 64, 36, Reportby Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 5.8.49; Document 324 in WiodzimierzBorodziej and Hans Lemberg(eds), Niemcy w Polsce1945-1950, 4 vols, Warsaw,2000-01, 2, pp. 465-66; BOD 1, 243, 335-37,Witness report by Karl B. from Schönkirch(Chrzasczyce), 14.8.55; BOD 1, 243,53-61, Witness report by HelmutR. from Carlsruhe(Pokój), 19.8.58; BOD 1, 243, 33-36,Witness report (guidelines) by GustavR. fromBlumenthal (Krzywa Gòra), undated; BOD 2, 229, 9-10, Witnessreport by M. H. fromCarlsruhe (Pokój), 23.6.52; BOD 1, 243,379-80, Witness report (guidelines) by E. D. fromWalldorf (Wawelno), undated; BOD 1, 243, 289-93,Witness report (guidelines) by JuliusT. fromProskau (Prószków), 14.4.56; BOD 1,243, 25-27, Witness report (guidelines) by FranzG. fromBergdorf (Daniec), undated; BOD 1, 243,49-51, Witness report (guidelines)by DorotheaS. fromBurkardsdorf (Bierdzany), 22.11. 54; BOD 1, 243,349-51, Wit- nessreport (guidelines) by GeorgS. fromTauentzien (Okoly), undated; BOD 1, 243,227- 28, Witnessreport (guidelines) by Josef M. fromKrappitz (Krapkowice), undated; BOD 1, 243, 271-74,Witness report (guidelines) by EmilieB. fromNeuwedel (Swieciny), 29.8.55; BOD 1, 243,67-72, Witness report (guidelines) by ArthurM. fromDershau (Suchy Bór), 7.10.54;Eser, 'Die Deutschenin Oberschlesien',p. 395; Hofmann,Die Nachkriegszeit, and pp.61 222-24 229-31. APO 178,sygn. 41, 20-23 and 25-27,'Situation reports' by Opole District'schief official on theperiods 20.3.45-20.3.46 and 20.4.46-20.5.46;APK 185/4,sygn. 436, 62-64,Report on an inspectionof Opole Districtin period10-23.6.46; APO 178,sygn. 41, 38-41, 'Situa- tionreport' by Opole District'schief official on theperiod 20.7.46-20.8.46; APO 178,sygn. 41,43-45, 'Situation report' by Opole District'schief official on theperiod 20.8.46-20.9.46; APO 178,sygn. 41, 47-49, 'Situation report' by Opole District'schief official on theperiod 20.9.46-20.10.46;APO 178,sygn. 62, 12-14,'Situation report' by Opole districtadministration'sSocial-Political Department, 2.5.47; APO 178,sygn. 42, 27-28,'Situation report' on the period20.5.47-20.6.47; APO 178,sygn. 42, 35-36, 'Situationreport' on the period 20.7.47-20.8.47;APO 178,sygn. 42, 39-41,'Situation report' on theperiod 20.8.47-20.9.47; APO 178,sygn. 42, 43-45, 'Situationreport' on theperiod 20.9.47-20.10.47; APK 185/4, sygn.51, 69-69a, 'Currentissues' report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department,11. 12.47; APO 178,sygn. 43, 9-12, 'Situationreport' on theperiod 20.12.47- 20.1.48;APO 178,sygn. 65, 17-21,Report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department,21.4.48; Hofmann, Die Nachkriegszeit,p. 116; Kowalski, Powrót, p. 365. 67O SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS and repopulationplayed only relatively minor roles in the authorities' driveto ethnicallyhomogenize Opole District.Like elsewherein western Upper Silesia and certainparts of southernEast Prussia,a more importantrole was playedin Opole Districtby the authorities'ethno- national Verificationaction', which purportedlyenabled the Polish authoritiesto demonstratethat a verylarge proportion of the pre-war populationof the districtwere ethnicPoles who, therefore,did not need to be uprootedand replaced.77 per cent of the 168,000perma- nent residentsof Opole Districtat the end of the 1940s were thus people who had alreadybeen livingin the districtbefore the war.62

Ill The centralassumption underlying the Verificationaction' was that thepre-war population of westernUpper Silesia was composedof two nationalgroups, Poles and Germans.Once the Poles had been identi- fied,the Germanscould be uprooted.Or, as Upper Silesia's regional governor,Zawadzki, put it: 'Nie chcemyani jednego Niemca, nie oddamyani jednej duszypolskiej' (eWe don't want a singleGerman, nor willwe give away a singlePolish soul').63 There were clear groundsfor claimingthat a large proportionof westernUpper Silesia's pre-war population was ethnicallyPolish. Firstly,there were the resultsof German censusescarried out before the 1922partition of Upper Silesia. In the nationwidecensus of 1910, the majorityof residentsin mostwestern Upper Silesiandistricts had put down Polish as theirmother tongue. For example,in Oppeln/ Opole District63 per centof the population were categorized as speak- ers of Polish,while in both Gross-Strehlitz/StrzelceOpolskie District and Rosenberg/Olesno Districtthe figurewas as highas 79 per cent. The proportionof Polish speakerswas foundto be even higherin a censusof primary school children of 1911: 75 per centin Oppeln/Opole District,89 per cent in Gross-Strehlitz/StrzelceOpolskie District,94 per centin Rosenberg/Olesno Districtand clear majoritiesin mostof the remainingdistricts of westernUpper Silesia.64

62APO, 178, sygn. 65, 17-21, Report on the 're-Polonization action' by Opole district administration'sSocial-Political Department, 21.4.48; Misztal, Weryfikacja,p. 158; Bohmann, Menschen*p. 200: Blanke, Polish-SòeakingGermans, pp. 2Qi-q8. 63 Cited in Eser, 'Die Deutschen in Oberschlesien',p. 388. 64 As well as people whose mother tongue was said to be Polish, these figuresinclude the much smallerproportion of the region's residentsdescribed as bilingual in both Polish and German. Sarah Wambaugh, PlebiscitesSince the WorldWar. Witha Collectionof Official Documents,2 vols, Washington,D.G., 1933, 1, p. 250; T. Hunt Tooley, NationalIdentity and WeimarGermany: Upper Silesia and theEastern Border, igi8-ig22, Lincoln, NE and London, 1997,p. 240; Bohmann, Menschen,pp. 192, 211 and 238. HUGO SERVICE 671 Secondly,although the number of people categorizedas Polish speakersdropped dramatically in the censusesof the internarperiod - so that,for example, less than one per cent of Oppeln/Opole District'sresidents were foundto speak Polishby the timeof the 1939 - census65 manyCatholic massescontinued to be givenin Polish in the region.This persistedeven once the Nazis came to power and startedto suppressPolish and Slavic culture.As late as the mid- 1930S,over 70 per centof massesin Oppeln/Opole District'sCatholic churches,for example, were stillbeing delivered in Polish.66 Thirdly,before the war, many residentsof westernUpper Silesia read Polish-languagenewspapers and many were also membersof Polish organizations.The most importantof these organizationswas the Associationof Poles in Germanywhich, like the Polish-Catholic Schools Society (Polsko-KatolickieTowarzystwo Szkolne), had its regionalheadquarters in Oppeln/Opole townbefore 1939. One of the region'smain Polish-languagenewspapers, Nowiny, was also published in Oppeln/Opole townin the internarperiod.67 But none of this meant that the post-warPolish authoritieswere rightto regardthe majority of western Upper Silesia'spre-war population as Poles. Up to 200,000 people may have read Polish-language newspapersin the regionin the late 1920s,but theystill represented - onlya fractionof the region's overall population and an evensmaller fractionwas made up of membersof the Associationof Poles in Germanyand otherPolish organizations.68 Moreover,the claim that the majorityof the region'sinhabitants spoke Polish was not beyond dispute.As one formerresident of the villageof Eichberg/Dçbiniecin Oppeln/Opole Districtclaimed: PurePolish was notspoken in theregion from which I came.The local Wasserpolnischdialect [. . .] shouldnever be regardedas Polish.[During thewar] I myselfwas assigned the job ofa guardin a campfor foreigners. There were Poles in this camp and theycould not understandthe Wasserpolnischdialect whatsoever.69 65 Againthis figure also includespeople said to be bilingualin Polishand German.But unlikein the1910 census, the 1939 census also includedthe categories 'Upper Silesian' and 'UpperSilesian and German'.Less than5 per centof OppelnDistrict's population placed themselvesin thesecategories in the iq^q census.Bohmann. Menschen, od. 2q8-qq. 66 MichalLis, 'Mniejszos'c polska w niemieckiejczçsci Górnego Slajska', in "Wachauf, mein Herz, und denke". Zur Geschichteder Beziehungenzwischen Schlesienund Berlin-Brandenburgvon 1740 bisheute, Berlin and Opole. iqq^. dd. 261-70fon. 267-60). 67 Maria Wanda Wanatowicz, Historiaspoleczno-polityczna Górnego Slqska i Slqska Cieszynskiego w latachigiß-igtf, Katowice, 1994, pp. 145-60 and 177-78;Lis, 'Mnieszoscpolska', pp. 262-69;Tomasz Kamusella,'Upper Silesia 1918-1945', in Karl Gordell(ed.), ThePoli- ticsofEthnidty in Central Europe, Basingstoke, 2000, pp. 92-112(pp. 97-101and 104);Ther, 'Die einheimischeBevölkerung', pp. 415-18;Madajczyk, Przyiqczenie, p. 197; Linek, Polityka antyniemiecka,68 pp. ^o-qc?. Wanatowicz,Historia, pp. 147-51;Lis, 'Mnieszosc polska',pp. 265-66; Ossowski, 'Zagadnienia',69 pp. 267-68. BOD 1, 243, 13-16,Witness report (guidelines) by JosefU. Eichberg(Debiniec), 19.12.54. 672 SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS There is littledoubt that the Slavic vernacularspoken in western Upper Silesiawas a dialectof Polish,but it was a verydifferent type of Polishto the languagespoken in centralPoland. This dialectwas the productof centuriesof culturaland politicalseparation from Poland and politicaland culturalaffiliation with the Habsburg and Prussian empires.This dialecthad stronglinks with both Czech and German, particularlyin termsof its vocabulary,and was barelyintelligible to the settlersfrom central and pre-wareastern Poland who arrivedin the regionafter the war. It was speakersof thisdialect rather than of conventionalPolish whom the 1910 and 1911 censuseswere generally referringto in westernUpper Silesia when theycategorized people as speakersof 'Polish5.70 Yet it would be equallyquestionable to claim thatmost of western Upper Silesia's pre-warinhabitants regarded themselves as Germans. To be sure,the majorityof votersin westernUpper Silesia had opted - forGermany in the plebisciteof 1921 including69 per cent of the votersin the ruralpart of Oppeln/Opole Districtand 95 per cent in Oppeln/Opoletown. But the60 per centwhich Germany had received in the overall Upper Silesian vote had not been achieved without the Germanauthorities transporting many tens of thousandsof Upper Silesian migrantworkers into the regionfrom western Germany to boost the German vote. Moreover,voting for Germanyin the 1921 plebisciteand regardingoneself as a Germanwere two quite different things.People had diverse,often very pragmatic reasons for voting for - Germany which usuallyhad littleto do with people perceiving themselvesas having a German ethno-nationalidentity. Before the Second World War, a large proportionof westernUpper Silesia's inhabitantsclearly had viewedthemselves as Germans,but theynever- thelessconstituted a minorityof the overallpopulation of the region - concentratedin the region'slarger towns. And the post-warPolish authoritieswere rightto assume thatmost of the people who viewed themselvesas Germanshad fledthe regionas the Red Armyinvaded inJanuary 1945.71

70Ther,'Die einheimischeBevölkerung', p. 411; ManfredAlexander, 'Oberschlesien im 20. Jahrhundert- eine mißverstandeneRegion', Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 30, 2004, pp. 465-89 (pp. 467-68 and 474-76);Ossowski, 'Zagadnienia', pp. 271,275-76, 281, 287, 289; Tomasz Kamusella, Silesia and CentralEuropean Nationalism: The Emergenceof National and EthnicGroups in PrussianSilesia and AustrianSilesia, 1848-^18, West Lafayette,IN, 2007, pp. 118-24; Kamusella, The Szlonzoksand TheirLanguage: Between Germany, Poland and Szlonzo- kianNationalism, EUI workingpaper, Florence,KS, 2003, pp. 11-21;Tooley, National Identity,p. n. 71 Bozena Malec-Masnyk, Plebiscytna GórnymSlasku (genezai character),Opole, 1989, pp. 179-80;Tooley, National Identity, pp. 234-52;Ther, 'Die einheimischeBevölkerung', pp. 415-21;Lis, 'Mniejszoscpolska', pp. 261-62. HUGO SERVICE 673 In fact,the majorityof the pre-warpopulation of westernUpper Silesia, as the Polish sociologistStanislaw Ossowski found during his researchtrip to Opole Districtin August 1945, regardedthemselves neitheras Germansnor as Poles. Rather,they were 'nationallyindif- ferent5and exhibitedmore of a regionalcollective consciousness than a German or Polish one. Accordingto Ossowski,most people were muchmore likely to identifythemselves as 'Silesians'(Slqzacy) or 'locals' (swojacy)than Germansor Poles. They tendedto be bilingualin both the local Polishdialect and in German,but did not view thisas con- tradictingtheir feelings of distinctionfrom Germans. Equally, most pre-warresidents of the region,according to Ossowski,regarded their attendanceof Polish-languageCatholic masses as part of the religious traditionof western Upper Silesiarather than a manifestationof Polish nationalidentity.72 The fractionof the pre-warpopulation who did activelyregard themselvesas Poles, Ossowskiexplained, were the sortof people who had supportedthe Polish insurgentsduring the Silesian Uprisingsof 191 9-2 1,led local branchesof the Association of Poles in Germanyand otherPolish organizationsduring the interwarperiod, and sent their childrento the small numberof Polish schoolswhich were set up in - westernUpper Silesia afterthe 1922partition of the region as part of the League of Nations' minorityrights guarantees. These people, accordingto Ossowski,were verysmall in number.They tended to be the people who, afterthe Polishtakeover of westernUpper Silesia in 1945,were given local administrativeposts by the authoritiesor wereselected by themto siton the Verificationcommittees' as 'trusted representatives'of the 'local Polishpopulation'.73 But ifonly a fractionof thepre-war western Upper Silesianpopula- tion regardedthemselves as Poles, why did so many people allow themselvesto be 'verified'as Poles afterthe Second World War? In Opole District,some of the pre-warresidents who were uprootedto Germanyafter 1945 claimed thatmost local people were 'pressured', 'blackmailed'or 'forced'to 'opt forPoland'.74 Opole District'sofficials

72 Ossowski,'Zagadnienia', pp. 273-85and 291-95;Kamusella, The Szlonzoks, pp. 12-13; Ther, 'Die einheimischeBevölkerung', pp. 413-14;Alexander, 'Oberschlesien', pp. 476- 80. 73 Ossowski,'Zagadnienia', pp. 266-74 and 280; Wanatowicz,Historia, pp. 147-51;Lis, 'Mniejszos'cpolska', pp. 262-68;APO, 185,sygn. 85, 3, Reportby Opole townadministration'sSocial-Political Department, 24.8.45; Witness reports in filesBOD 1, 243 and BOD 2 22Q. 74 BOD 2, 229,3-4, Witnessreport by Alfred von A. fromAlthammer (Paliwoda), 10.4.51; BOD 1, 243, 49-51, Witnessreport (guidelines) by Dorothea S. fromBurkardsdorf (Bierdzany),22.11.54; BOD 1, 243, 67-72,Witness report (guidelines) by ArthurM. from Derschau (Suchy Bór), 7.10.54;BOD 1, 243, 381-82, Witnessreport (guidelines) by WilhelmK. fromWinau (Winów), 25.3.56; BOD 1, 243,25-27, Witness report (guidelines) by FranzG. fromBergdorf (Daniec), undated; BOD 1, 243, 13-16,Witness report (guidelines)by Josef J. fromEichberg (Dçbiniec), 19.12.54; BOD 1, 243, 37-39,Witness report 674 SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS also acknowledgedthat a certainamount of pressurewas sometimes exertedto induce people to submitVerification' applications. One officialfrom Opole townadministration, for example, mentioned in a documentfrom January 1948 'people whoseverification had not been achievedwithout a certainamount of difficulty'.75But it is clear that nobody was physicallyforced to submita Verification'application. Instead,the authoritiesconfronted local people with a starkchoice: eithersubmit a Verification'application or face evictionfrom homes, internmentin camps and forcibletransportation to Germany.As one formerresident of the villageof Proskau/Prószkówin Opole District put it: cThosewho wishedto retaintheir property had to opt. If you did not opt, you had no rights.'76There was, then,only a choice of sorts.Any local who wishedto 'opt forGermany' was freeto do so, as long as theywere willingto accept the severeconsequences of this.77 Thus the Verificationaction' did not filterPoles fromGermans, as the post-warPolish authorities claimed it did. Ratherit removedindi- vidualswho openlyregarded themselves as Germansand individuals who were clearlyhostile to 'Polish culture'and 'Poles' froma popula- tionwhich largely held no feelingsof 'national'affiliation. As long as a person did not go out of his or her way to emphasizea German nationalidentity or hostilityto 'Poles', theirapplication for Verifica- tion' was generallysuccessful. One extraordinaryconsequence of this was thatclose relativeswere oftenplaced intodifferent ethno-national categoriesduring the 'verification'process. For example,the brother of Gustavfrom the village of Blumenthal/Krzywa Gòra in Opole District submittedan applicationand was thereforeallowed to remainthere as a 'Pole', whereasGustav and the restof his familyrefused and were transportedto Germanyas 'Germans'in August1946.78

74Continued (guidelines)by GüntherM. fromBolko (Nowa Wies Królewska),written mid-1950s; BOD 1,243, 299-301, Witness report (guidelines) by Franz G. fromRogau (Rogów),8.9.55; BOD 1, 243,225-26, Witness report by Jakob P. fromKranst (Chrzajstowice), September 1956; BOD 1, 243,227-28, Witness report (guidelines) by Josef M. fromKrappitz (Krapkowice), undated;BOD 1,243, 13-16, Witness report (guidelines) by Josef J. fromEichberg (Dçbiniec), iQ.12.^4.. 75 ÄPO, 185,sygn. 85, 48, 'Situationreport' by thehead of Opole townadministration's Social-PoliticalDepartment, 21. 1.48. 76BOD 1, 24.3,287-88, Witness report (guidelines) by RudolfT., undated. 77 BOD 1, 243, 33-36, Witnessreport (guidelines) by Gustav R. fromBlumenthal (KrzywaGòra), undated; BOD 1,243, 67-72, Witness report (guidelines) by Arthur M. from Derschau(Suchy Bór), 7.10.54; BOD 1, 243, 197-98,Letter to von Witzendorff-Rehdiger by TosefT. from Horst (Swierkle), 2.8.^. 75 BOD 1, 243, 33-36, Witnessreport (guidelines) by Gustav R. fromBlumenthal (KrzywaGòra), undated; BOD 1, 243,264-65, Letter to von WitzendorffRehdiger from JosefJ. Eichberg(Dçbiniec), 19.10.54; BOD 1,243, 309-19, Witness report by FriedrichK. fromSacken (Lubienia),24.7.55; BOD J>243> 49-51» Witnessreport (guidelines) by DorotheaS. fromBurkardsdorf (Bierdzany), 22.11.54; BOD 1, 243,289-93, Witness report (guidelines)by Julius T. fromProskau (Prószków), 14.4.56; BOD 1,243, 121-22, Letter from G. fromFalkendorf (Falkowice), 8.4.59; BOD 1, 243, 174-81,Witness report by GeorgK. fromHinterwasser (Zawada), 24.10.57. HUGO SERVICE 675 All of thismight point to a conclusionthat the authoritiesof Opole Districtand ofwestern Upper Silesia as a wholeprioritized the goal of strengtheningPoland's territorialclaim to the regionover the Polish centralgovernment's goal of transformingpost-war Poland into an - ethnicallypure Polishnation-state and thereforeVerified' as Poles hundredsof thousandsof people whom theydid not actuallyregard as such. But this was not at all how Opole District'sand western Upper Silesia's authoritiesviewed the 'verificationaction'. As far as - - they and, for that matter,the sociologistStanislaw Ossowski were concerned,the people Verified'as Poles actually wereethnic Poles,but ethnicPoles whose 'nationalconsciousness' had notyet fully 'crystallized'. From the outset,they thereforeaccompanied their Verification action' withmeasures aimed at culturally're-Polonizing' the pre-war population.In Opole District,these measures included such initiatives as expandingthe district'snetwork of Polish-languagelibraries and - resurrectingOpole's interwarPolish-language newspaper now under the name NowinyOpolskie. But they centredon so-called 're- Polonizationcourses' (kursy repolonizacyjne). These courses,which were establishedthroughout western Upper Silesiafrom 1945 onwards, were primarilyaimed at teaching local people standard Polish. Opole District'sauthorities set up coursesin localitiesacross the district during 1945,increasing their number as each yearpassed. They wereparticu- larlykeen foryoung people to attend,recognizing that, as children, theyhad been disproportionatelyaffected by 'Germanization'during the Nazi period. Likewise,they believed that overcomingparental - reluctanceto sendinglocal childrento Polishschools a widespread - phenomenonin westernUpper Silesia in the initialpost-war years was integralto the success of the 're-Polonizationcampaign' (akcja repolonizacyjnd).79 The Polishofficials in chargein westernUpper Silesia,most of whom were fromcentral Poland, struggledgreatly, however, to comprehend the intricaciesof culturalidentity in westernUpper Silesia. They were

79APO, 178,sygn. 41, 34-36, 'Situationreport' by Opole District'schief official on the period20.6.46-20.7.46; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 34, 'Situationreport' by the head of Opole townadministration's Social-Political Department, 21.7.46; APO, 178,sygn. B15, pp. i-ia, 'Situationreport' by the district administration's Social-Political Department, 4.12.46; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 50, 'Situationreport' by the head of townadministration's Social-Political Department,21.2.47; APO, 185,sygn. 85, 52, 'Situationreport by the head oftown administration'sSocial-Political Department, 21.4.47; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 17-21,Report on the 're-Polonizationaction' by the district administration's Social-Political Department, 21.4.48; APO, 178,sygn. 63, 9-10, Report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Depart- ment,7.1.49; APO, 178,sygn. 64, 12-13,'Current issues' report by thedistrict administration'sSocial-Political Department, 24.1.49; APO, 178,sygn. 64, 43, Report by Opole district administration'sSocial-Political Department, 25.11.49; Madajczyk, Przyiqczenie, pp. 196-97; Linek, Politykaantyniemiecka, p. 335. 676 SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS particularlyshocked by the amountof Germanwhich continued to be spoken in the region afterthe arrivalof Polish authoritiesin 1945. Opole District'schief official remarked in December1945, for example, thatc[i]t is a verystrange phenomenon that the local population,which partiallyknows the Polish language,nevertheless uses German'.80In thesecond half of 1946,officials across western Upper Silesia startedto clamp down on the 'Germanjabber' stillbeing spoken in the region's streetsand squares,introducing fines and otherpenalties for speaking German in public fromthe startof 1947. In August 1947 regional governorZawadzki launcheda campaignto combatwhat he termed the 'resurgenceof German language and culture'in the region,ins- tructinglocal officialsto punishanyone caught speakingGerman in publicwith fines of up to 30,000zloty or internmentin a speciallabour camp in Gliwice.81 As Opole District'sauthorities increasingly recognized, however, this penal approach,even when supplemented by £re-Polonizationcourses', achievedlittle. Moreover, they came to see thatit was actuallythe use of Germanat home ratherthan in public thatwas the real problem. An officialfrom Opole districtadministration noted, for example, in March 1949:'There are veryfew families among the native population who do not teach theirchildren German [. . .] The Germanlanguage and German radio can stillbe heard in homes. Fightingthis phenomenon is simplynot possible,not only because of the insufficient numberof SecurityPolice in the districtbut also because thisis a mass phenomenon.'82 Far fromculturally 're-Polonizing' the pre-warpopulation, these policiesof 'de-Germanization' and 're-Polonization'positively alienated the pre-warresidents of westernUpper Silesia. In some cases, this manifesteditself in people who had already submitted'verification' applicationsrefusing to supplythe separate 'declarationsof loyalty towardsthe Polish nation and state'which were necessaryto secure permanentPolish citizenship.83The authorities'nationalist policies

80APO, 178,sygn. 41, 10-12,'Situation report' by Opole District'schief official, on the 20.1 12.45.Interestingly, it is possiblethat at thispoint the district'schief period 1.45-20. - officialwas fromUpper Silesia ratherthan from central Poland thisis impliedby a statementin a witnessreport by Frau K. fromOderwinkel (Kajy Opolskie),30.5.59, BOD 1,81 243, 277-80. APO, 185,sygn. 85, 35, 'Situationreport' by thehead of Opole townadministration's Social-PoliticalDepartment, 21.8.46; Linek, Polityka antyniemiecha, pp. 220, 253-54, 261-64. 82 APO, 178,sygn. 64, 16-17,'Special report'by thehead of Õpole districtadministration'sSocial-Political Department, 10.3.40. 83 APO 185,sygn. 85, 39-43, 'Situationreports' by thehead of Opole townadministration'sSocial-Political Department, 21.9.46, 21.10.46, 13.11.46 and 21.11.46; APO 185,sygn. 85, 48, 'Situationreport' by the head of Opole townauthorities' Social-Political Depart- ment,21. 1. 48; Borodziej,'Einleitung', p. 109;Hofmann, Die Nachkriegszeit, p. 300; Kowalski, Powrót,pp. 342 and 370-71. HUGO SERVICE 677 werenot the sole cause of thisalienation. Rather, they exacerbated the feelingsof estrangementtowards Toles' whichmany pre-war residents had already feltsince the wave of violence and robberyby Polish 'marauders'which accompaniedthe Polish takeoverof the regionin spring1945. This alienationwas also a productof hostilerelations with - ordinaryPolish settlers whichresulted from conflicts over property, perceptionsof culturaldifferences and difficultiesunderstanding dis- tinctdialects. Polish settlersoften referred to the pre-warresidents - withtheir derogatory term for Germans szwaby.Correspondingly, pre-warresidents often claimed that the settlers from the ceded eastern territorieswere speakingnot Polish but Ukrainianor Russian. The impact of this alienation, according to the sociologistStanislaw Ossowski,was to lessenthe feelingsof distanceand separationwhich pre-warresidents of the regionfelt towards 'Germans' and towards viewingthemselves as Germans.More importantly,it clearly strength- ened theirfeelings of regionaldistinctiveness.84 As one officialfrom Opole districtadministration remarked in 1948,c[l]ocal people, without meaningto, oftenstress that they are not Poles but Silesians.They use the term"Pole" only to describethe immigrantpopulation [. . .] So theyfeel and theyemphasize their separate identity'.85 The same was beingwitnessed across western Upper Silesia by the turnof the decade. The deputyregional governor of Upper Silesia, ArkadiuszBozek, remarked in 1950:'The Germansmust now be laugh- ing at us, because what theyfailed to accomplishin seven centuries [. . .] we will achieve in just sevenyears: the eradicationof Polishness in theseterritories right down to the roots.'86In subsequentdecades, whenthe opportunityarose, many chose to migrateto West Germany - influencedby thefar better living conditions which they knew exis- ted there.Forty-seven thousand people migratedfrom western Upper Silesia to the Federal Republic of Germanybetween 1956 and 1959, and manytens of thousandsfollowed after 1963. Moreover,after the - collapse of Communismin Poland in 1989 althoughfew residents

84APO, 185,sygn. 85, 43, 'Situationreport' by thehead of Opole townadministration's Social-PoliticalDepartment, 21. 11.46; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 11-12,'Current Issues' report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 7.4.48; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 23-24, 'Currentissues' report by Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Depart- ment,6.5.48; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 50-52, Reporton the firsthalf of 1948,written in earlyJuly 1948; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 54-55, 'Current issues' report by Opole districtadministration'sSocial-Political Department, 4.8.48; APO, 178,sygn. 65, 56-57,'Current issues' reportby Opole districtadministration's Social-Political Department, 4.9.48; Ossowski, 'Zasradnienie',pp. 288-qi and 206-00 85 APO, 178,sygn. 65, 63-65, 'Currentissues' report by Opole districtadministration's Social-PoliticalDepartment, ^.11.48. 86 Cited by Ther, 'Die einheimischeBevölkerung', pp. 431-37;Wanatowicz, Historia, p. 148. 678 SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS - of the regioncould speak Germanby thistime numerousGerman culturalorganizations sprang up in westernUpper Silesia,particularly in the countrysidesurrounding Opole town.Many 'Germanminority' representativeswere also elected into the region'slocal councilsand - assistedby thelack of a minimumvote threshold for representatives - of recognized 'national minorities' some even gained seats in Poland's Sejm (nationalparliament). Parallel to this,a Silesiannational movementemerged in Upper Silesia withthe aim of gainingformal governmentrecognition for 'Silesians' as a 'national minority'and politicalautonomy for Upper Silesia.87 Much of thesepost- 1989 identityissues and movementsin western Upper Silesia can be tracedback to thefailure of Verification'and cre- Polonization'in 1945to 1949.Of course,this is not to claimthat many pre-warresidents or theirdescendants were not ultimatelyculturally assimilatedinto Polish society.Decades of Polish mass media, Polish schoolingand everydayinteraction with settlers caused manyof these people not onlyto become speakersof conventionalPolish but also to regardthemselves self-consciously as Poles. It also moved the regional Silesian dialect a great deal closer to conventionalPolish. But this assimilationtook decades and happenedin spite of the ethnicscreening and ethniccleansing of the late 1940srather than as a resultof it. The outcomesof the othermajor cases of ethnicscreening imple- mentedin East-CentralEurope in the 1940swere just as problematic. The DeutscheVolksliste had been introducedby the Nazi German authoritiesin the Polish territoriesthey had annexed to Germanyat the startof the war because theywished to preventethnic Germans and 'individualsof German descent' from being expelled to theGeneral Governmentalong with Poles andJews. But facedwith the ambiguous realitiesof cultural identity, they resorted, in easternUpper Silesia and theDanzig/ Gdansk region, to enteringeveryone but the most stubborn dissentersinto the DVL - just as the Polishauthorities would do after the war when 'verifying'the residentsof westernUpper Silesia and partsof southernEast Prussia.In thecase of easternUpper Silesia,the Nazi Germanauthorities' decision to categorizea verylarge proportion oflocal residentsas being'of Germandescent' was partlymotivated by theirdesire to protectskilled workers in thisimportant industrial region - fromexpulsion to the GeneralGovernment and the resultwas that 95 per cent of the populationwas enteredinto the DVL by 1944. In

87 Ther, 'Die einheimischeBevölkerung', pp. 431-38; Alexander,'Oberschlesien5, pp. 484-88; Kamusella,The Szlozoks, pp. 26-30; PiotrMadajczyk, Memcy polscy ig^-igßg, Warsaw,2001, pp. 337-43;Klaus Bachmann,'Jak skiócic Niemców z Polakami',Gazeta Wyborcza(Warsaw), 11 September 2006, p. 23. HUGO SERVICE 679 fact,the wartimeGerman authoritieswent still further than the post- war Polishauthorities would later do in thatthey made applicationfor the DVL compulsoryand refusalto applyfor it punishableby internmentin a concentrationcamp. Yet ultimatelythe DVL had a similar outcometo the 'verificationaction' in thatit inducedvery few pre-war Polish citizensin easternUpper Silesia to begin viewingthemselves as Germans.Indeed, the majorityof easternUpper Silesia's residents voluntarilyunderwent re-categorization as ethnicPoles in the immedi- ate post-waryears throughthe post-warPolish authorities'so-called 'rehabilitationaction' (akcja rehabilitacyjna).88 In occupiedCzechoslovakia, the Nazis' attemptto separate'German- izables' from'un-Germanizables' was also characterizedby German officialsarbitrarily ascribing German national identities to people who clearlydid not regardthemselves as Germans.And this action,too, was heavilyinfluenced by the need to protectthe skilledworkers of Bohemia and Moravia's valuable industryfrom possible expulsion. It is unlikelythat the Nazis could ever have achievedtheir original aim ofpersuading half the population of theseregions to regardthemselves - as Germans but a surge in Czech nationalistactivities, and the relatedassassination of Reich ProtectorReinhard Heydrichin June 1942,anyway put a prematureend to thisethnic screening process in 1943.89In theaftermath of the war, the post-war Czechoslovakian gov- ernmentproved equally baffled by the apparent'national indifference' of a sizeablesection of Czechoslovakia'spopulation - at a timewhen the governmentwas seekingto ethnicallycleanse the countryof all 'Germans'.The ethnicscreening process which the governmentintro- duced to resolvethis confusion certainly spared a considerablenumber of people fromforcible transportation to the US and Soviet Occupa- tionZones afterthe war. But it did littleto persuademany of them that theywere Czechs.90 In all of thesecases, then,ethnic screening had poor results.Yet it is clear fromthis that ethnic screening played an importantrole in the ethnic cleansing which the German, Czechoslovakianand Polish authoritiesattempted to carryout in East-CentralEurope in thecourse ofthe 1940s.Each regimeintroduced ethnic screening in thefirst place because, althoughthey were sure that theywanted to rid particular territoriesof stigmatizednational groups, they frequently found it very

88 Boda-Krçzel,Sprawa Volkslisty, pp. 22-26 and 33; Borodziej,'Einleitung', pp. 42-43; Eser,'Die Deutschenin Oberschlesien',pp. 372-73;Mazower, Hitler's Empire, pp. 193-98; Kamusella,The Szlonzoks,p. 22; Kamusella,'Upper Silesia',pp. 104-05; Wanatowicz, Historia, 89 pp. 180-81;Borodziej, 'Einleitung', pp. 106-07. Bryant,'Either German or Czech', pp. 686-96; Zahra, 'ReclaimingChildren', PP-90527-33- Bryant,'Either German or Czech', pp. 696-700;King, Budweisers, pp. 194-202. 68O SIFTING POLES FROM GERMANS difficultto identifythe members of thesegroups. None ofthese nation- alistregimes was willingto contemplatethe possibilitythat the cause of thisproblem was the conceptualframes through which theyhad chosento viewthe inhabitants of these territories. Each failedto recog- nize thatthe nationalcategories into which they sought to place these people were nothingmore than crude simplifications.In all contexts, nationalismhas requiredpeople to simplifyhow theyunderstand themselves and the communitiesto which they belong. It has impelled people to identifythemselves primarily or exclusivelywith a 'nation' and to downplayor ignoreall otherforms of community and collective consciousness.But in regionswhere many people have neverthought - of themselvesin 'national' terms regionswhich were not at all unusualin Centraland EasternEurope in thefirst half of the twentieth - century nationalismcalled for especiallywrenching changes to traditionalself-understandings. This is preciselywhat was witnessedin Oppeln/Opole Districtin the fiveyears following the Second World War. The post-warPolish authoritiesof this districtpresented locals with a crude nationalist choice throughtheir Verificationaction' and Cre-Polonizationcam- paign'. They orderedthem eitherto startunderstanding themselves - as 'Poles' or to leave. Largelyfor pragmatic reasons in orderto be allowedto remainin the districtand to hold onto theirhomes - the majoritychose at firstto swallowthe most importantelement of the authorities'nationalist drive. They 'yielded'to 'verification'in thehalf- decade followingthe war, as the districtofficial had put it. But few self-consciously'nationalized' their identities in theway the authorities intended- not even forthe sake of appearances.Few people came to understandthemselves as 'Poles' in the fiveyears following the war. The 'verificationaction' impactedprofoundly on the livesof Oppeln/ Opole District'sresidents and on theway theyunderstood themselves. What it did not do is siftPoles fromGermans.